I was so excited to return to Vienna after several years, even if just for one night. With the Park Hyatt Vienna as our base, my kids and I had a wonderful 23-hour layover in the Austrian capital.
A Wonderful 23-Hour Layover In Vienna With My Kids
After arriving on Austrian Airlines, we took an Uber to the Park Hyatt. In general, I find that Austrians are more willing to stick to German, even when you are clearly a foreigner, than Germans are and so I conducted the entire check-in process in German (Germans often switch immediately to English when you hand over your U.S. passport at check-in).
Because I reserved a room with two beds, we did not get a fancy upgrade even though I had applied a Guest of Honor award, but this was just fine by me since we were able to check-in before noon.
The kids wanted to go swimming immediately, but I found that I had left my swimming trunks in California so we did a quick run to H&M for some new ones, that I have now added to my wardrobe in Germany.
The Park Hyatt Vienna has a beautiful indoor pool and we spent the next couple hours swimming. Augustine and I also used the sauna and steam room (no drama this time!).
> Read More: Accused Of Being A Child Predator at Park Hyatt Vienna!
A bit tired and hungry after the swim, we went out walking and to look for a lunch spot. It was oppressively hot in Vienna and the front desk clerk at the hotel remarked that it had not rained in weeks.
My preferred restaurant in Vienna is Fabios, but I’m not taking the kids to nice restaurants until they are bit older.
We went to a Lebanese restaurant instead and enjoyed a very delicious “linner” (late lunch, early dinner).
While we were eating, the heavens opened up and it rained like I’ve never seen in Europe before…heavy, unrelenting, almost torrential rain for about 30 minutes. Thankfully, we were under a canopy and just sat and waited for the storm to pass through.
It did, and we headed out to the Eiscafe for some ice cream…yum.
Back at the hotel, it was now 6:00 pm. I think we were all tired at this point, but I wanted us to stay up just a little longer so I let the kids have some screen time for a little bit while I got some work done, then we headed out for one more walk around 7:30 pm.
Care to guess where we ended up? Yes, more ice cream. It is vacation after all. And folks, this Dubai chocolate ice cream at Lindt was fabulous…so much better than the ice cream earlier.
We went to sleep and managed to sleep well (I find that jet lag often doesn’t hit till the second or third day).
I was up at 6:00 am and headed downstairs to the gym while the kids were sleeping.
After a nice workout, we all proceeded down to breakfast, enjoying a delicious feast.
And that was that: we packed up, ordered an Uber, and returned to the airport for our connection to Zürich.
This was a nice little layover and while there is far more to see in Vienna than simply walking through the inner city, that was enough for us–along with swimming and good food–on this visit.
Aww! So nice! Huge fan of the PH in Vienna, especially for burning Hyatt points on a stay. Great review! (*gasp* no Taco Bell? Good call…)
That looks pleasant. I’m staying old the old Andaz, now Regency, next week. I’ve been visiting Vienna somewhat regularly since the late 1990s and admittedly, it isn’t my favorite European city, but I can’t really put my thumb on why.
More importantly… no coffee recommendations? It is Vienna afterall.
Thanks for your report and photos
I love that you travel with your children.
Great way to spend time with them and make memories.
Augustine was giving you the Buddha Belly!